DNA from relatives of missing people can help bring closure to families

Jun. 23, 2013

Written by

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Family members of missing people can come to the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office on Tuesday to provide something that could be key to solving their loved ones’ cases: DNA.

The event is being held by the Michigan State Police, the Detroit Police Department and the Medical Examiner’s Office, in partnership with the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUS.

State Police Detective Trooper Sarah Krebs said the samples can help give identities to unidentified remains.

“A lot of families, of course, don’t want to even think that their loved one would be at the morgue,” she said. “But the reality is that we have many, many cases of unsolved identities there. They very well could be their missing person.”

The DNA samples taken from family members, Krebs said, will be put into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System. She said the samples will be used only to help identify people or remains.

According to a news release from the State Police, there are more than 4,000 missing-persons cases in Michigan. According to NamUs, there are 145 open cases of unidentified persons in the state.

Krebs said that, at the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, she collected DNA samples from the remains of 15 cases of unidentified people earlier this month. The cases, she said, spanned from 2002 through this year. She said the office has other unidentified remains that need to be sampled, as well.

On Tuesday, families are encouraged to bring police reports, photos, X-rays, medical and dental records and at least two biological relatives of the missing person.

The event will run 9 a.m.-6 p.m. at the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, 1300 E. Warren in Detroit.